Ponzi Scheme

by Editor
June 8, 2017 at 3:07 pm

http://www.smartertimes.com/1534/ponzi-scheme

The New York Times business section publishes an interview with Jenna Wortham, a staff writer for the New York Times magazine. It's not clear who conducted the interview; the byline on the article is "By Jenna Wortham," which makes it sound like she interviewed herself. Here is a passage from the interview:

What are your thoughts on Juicero, the $400 Silicon Valley system for squeezing juice that raised bucketloads of venture money but has faced questions over its effectiveness?

It's up there with the greatest Ponzi schemes of our lifetime....

This seems to me like reckless and irresponsible journalism on the part of the Times. A Ponzi scheme is a crime. In Juicero's case, no one has been charged with a crime. If the Times has investors or customers or former employees or current employees or competitors of the company, or government officials, who want to criticize it on the record on the basis of actual evidence, that is one thing. But to have a Times reporter just shooting from the hip on the topic, without allowing the company a chance to defend itself to Times readers, seems shabby, and a departure from basic standards of journalistic fairness. It would be a case for the Times public editor, but the Times just eliminated its public editor position, even though it claims to be awash in cash from the surge of new paying anti-Trump subscribers. So Smartertimes.com will have to suffice.

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